Community, Communication & Continuous Improvement

Through Community engagement, effective Communication and a Continuous Improvement mindset, the Riverbank Unified School District will improve educational outcomes for All students.

A Vision for Riverbank Unified School District

Riverbank Unified School District serves nearly 3,000 students with diverse educational needs. Half of our students and their families are qualified as socio-economically disadvantaged and more than half of our students are English Learners. While nearly all of our schools are making yearly academic progress, as measured by the Academic Performance Index (API), each one of our schools fall below the state’s expected API. While students continue to achieve at higher levels than they did nearly a decade ago, our district has been targeted as a system in need, a Program Improvement district.

Our students and their families continue to come to campus with increasingly diverse educational needs. We mustbroaden our definition of education to include essential support and services that engage our families and strengthen our community. By focusing on a wider array of support services rather than just traditional educational services, we will be more equipped to work with all students. Therefore, as educational leaders, we must create a coherent system of support that connects all services and programs to the established academic expectations for all students. While focusing on building a coherent system of support that is aligned to the instructional core, we will remain relentless in our pursuit of instructional reform to ensure quality classroom instruction for all students. We will build capacity for instructional improvement by investing in our teachers through ongoing, research-validatedprofessional development and instructional coaching. We will build a common language around the technical core of student learning to create an articulated learning experience for students and a professional learning community for staff. We will ensure that all schools have the resources and supports they need to provide all students with the opportunities to learn.

In order to build and maintain a system that is responsive to the dynamic and changing needs of the Riverbank community, we must commit ourselves to building and sustaining an effective and productive team. Effective teams are built around open dialogue, discussion and debate on essential ideas that impact the education of our students. Our Leadership Team will design a communication and decision making loop that is transparent and efficient.

As instructional leaders we must adopt and implement data analysis protocols for ourselves and our staffs, design a system to monitor and support classroom instruction, and create a coherent and coordinated professional development plan. We will support teachers through frequent classroom visitations, provide feedback on instructional practices, engage in conversations that encourage reflections on classroom practices and participate alongside our teachers in collaborative planning and in professional development.

As a Leadership Team we will engage in our own professional development so that we can respond to changing needs of our staffs and departments. We must become proficient in anticipating challenges and hurdles rather than only reacting to barriers that we will face in leading our organization. We must hold ourselves accountable for making sure that what we do on a daily basis directly relates to improving what happens in every classroom every day for every student.

Each leader brings a unique perspective and approach to their work. This creativity and wide range of experiences will only strengthen the foundation of our Leadership Team.